Someone else articulated it better than I could by saying they're essentially erasing the experiences of mixed-race people and treating them as just whatever one of their parents might be.
That happens in the real world. It is racist. How quickly people are prepared to invalidate others' experiences of racism and remain in denial because they've convinced themselves they get to make the rules (no pun intended).
I want to start off by saying that those feelings are a valid reaction to the playtest and I see what you mean, but I would also ask if you had considered that there are other mechanically significant parts of a character's origin here than their inherited powers. The Background, Language, and the Feat are also mechanically significant and I think they can help represent more parts of a character's heritage. The part of the playtest that makes me feel more comfortable and others that I have talked to as well is that they now treat multiracial heritage as part of someone's lore rather than some kind of special superpower that sets them apart from everyone else. I mean why only those two, Half Elves and Half Orcs?
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Having Half-elves as official races alongside the other twenty elves is stupid. Having just two official "half" races when there are over fifty races is stupid. Making an official race for every combination of races would be stupid. Removing the codified "half" races is a great move.
It's "stupid" for those of us of ethnic complexity to want to be better represented in the game?
Instead being mixed race means you now can't see it as being both or neither but instead must pick a race?
That happens in the real world and it is disgustingly and disturbingly racist.
Wizards are exemplifying why there are books about the "neo-racism" now rife among those who believe they are saints when it comes to the subject.
Buddy, if you want your human PC to be of mixed ethnicity, that was always allowed. Stretching that idea across fifty species and codifying every one is indeed stupid.
i don't understand the kerfuffle about losing half elves. in the UA playtest, unless something has changed, you can still be a half elf or half orc. the major difference is that the other half isn't locked into half-human. soon elvish and orcish children will be free to have dwarf dads, gnomish moms, etc. your character can even be a half-elf-half-orc. what's the loss?
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unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
"How fantasy biracial characters work in One DnD is fairly straightforward. You can “mix and match visual characteristics” as you like, then choose which race option provides your game traits: size, speed, and special traits (like dwarf’s stonesense and dragonborn’s breath weapons)."
This is not a true bispecies character however as mechanically it only values 1 parent not both. Yes cosmetically you can be a mix but mechanically unless they change the system you can not so it's not a true mixed race system. When you have a system that lets you pick a trait from each parentage then it will be a true bispecies system; I am not a fan of their current attempt and hope they will improve it but I'm sadly not holding my breath.
"As written you have to pick one race, but you can pretend it looks different. It does not allow you to mix & match racial traits. The point of half-elves was to have some of the versatility of humans with some of the benefits of elves - not having all of either one."
⬆️ This.
"The naming strategy is being removed in favour of something more palatable. But the races are not being removed. You can still play them."
So what would you call a mixed species PC then Cyb3rM1nd? If someone uses the 2014 PHB and says "my character is a half-elf" you still have the term being used so what does removing it from the new book grant you? It just feels like they're creating more issues than they're solving with some moves.
They aren't an elf or an orc, but half of each if that's the parent mix you went with for the game.
"And "halfling" isn't part of that because the "half" used in that is a reference to them being "half the size" not "half a race"."
The debate is though if they take issue with the term "half" that is literally half of the Halfling name so do you rename them as well, if not why are you just renaming some with it in the title? I get what you're saying regarding it's half the size but again a half elf is literally half an elf in DNA so what else should they be called? I get not wanting people to use it in a derogatory way, but have many people been doing that to warrant this change? If not then why rock this boat; why alienate biracial players and players who just enjoy doing biracial PCs for story reasons by saying identifying as half X or half Y is racist? Again if they had such an issue with the term why change it now? It was important to them to update Strahd because they didn't like how NPCs on it were portrayed and language and they thought removing also from species was important enough to write Tasha's so why wait until a new PHB to address this? It feels weird.
"Half-elves, half-orcs, half-whatevers, are supposed to be outcasts, not accepted by either race."
Why though? Surely there's some loving biracial families in the lands! Ugh, I hate old lore like this and that for sure can go - let villains be villains because of actions not because a god deemed them so and if you're going to say someone usually does something say there always exception to the rules; some new DMs and players especially think if it's in the books it's cannon only and forever and that's why you get Exact Same Character 247 instead of new ideas and why people turn from the hobby because they come with a cool new take on something but are shut down because RAW.
How about focusing on that D&D team instead of creating issues where there mainly are none at the time? Revising the Drow and Orcs alone should take you the next 5 years. If you want to better adventures there's at least 2 more years; maybe it's just me but I think there's better places they could have started revamping problematic issues than removing half-elf/half-orc and making a subpar "mixed species PC creator" to replace them because it in fact does not allow you to reflex both your racial sides.
"If anything, to embrace equality and promote inclusion, there should be more "half-" races, not less."
⬆️
"Still unsure if an April Fools joke or not."
Was the article posted on April 1st? If not, it's probably not a joke. From what I can tell this conversation has been going on online all over various platforms for at least half a day so Wizards has to know about it and regardless if it's true or not originally they now have to say something about it and either clarify the comment, stand by it, or say it's not true and then sue the website for slander.
Of all the things to April Fools on why pick this as a topic? If you want more rage it would be an article saying a new OGL will be in play for One/6e (not calling it Revised given it contains all new class formats and species not in the original 5e PHB) or something about the VTT and all the microtransactions it's certainly going to have...it could be fake but the more Wizards doesn't speak up the more it seems realistic.
Sadly, even if they do speak up and say it's fake now how many will believe them given all the recent issues they've had with communication missteps?
They just can't seem to get out of their own way as it were this year.
"I mean why only those two, Half Elves and Half Orcs?"
This is a fair question for sure Ophidimancer!
This is why I'm fine on the one hand with a Mixed Species Creator and a line being included in the Species section saying when two species mix together and produce a mixed species child that child gains traits from each parent - this includes mechanical and visual features...see page X for the MSC or something and then players could see from the engine how to pull from any two species.
That said, the creation system the D&D team have pitched in the UA is bad for reflecting this. Yes visually they say you can go wild with how you customize your PC to reflect each parent but mechanically they are currently forcing you to chose a parentage and that's not how DNA works. Even if they say it's meant to reflect the dominate/recessive genes of DNA you still get some from parent A and some from parent B so yeah your Breath Weapon might be your dominate power (especially if you use it in combat all the time) and maybe you said you have scales like your Dragonborne parent but you still have in you Darkvision from your Elf parent...it might only go 30ft versus 60ft because only one parent has it but it's still in you and something that could be the dominate gene in your kid.
If they revise their mixed species creator then you could have a Mixed Species species option after the base species stats are shown and that would again open every species up to having the option not just elves and orcs.
The reason given for removing the “half-races” is because the concept of “half” races is itself racist. WOTC’s likely intention is to open up mixed races and simplify the game even further. But like many people, they fail to see their racism as racism
i don't understand the kerfuffle about losing half elves. in the UA playtest, unless something has changed, you can still be a half elf or half orc. the major difference is that the other half isn't locked into half-human. soon elvish and orcish children will be free to have dwarf dads, gnomish moms, etc. your character can even be a half-elf-half-orc. what's the loss?
What's the loss? You no longer have a character with a pre-balanced blend of racial traits. Half-elf has been a race from the first edition of AD&D, combining some of the versatility of humans with some of the "magic" of elves. While the specifics have changed through the various editions, even in 5e they get some of each but not all of both - a balance.
What we're getting? Choose one race, and only one race. All of your racial traits come from that one race. There is no system to choose traits from two parent races, nor will there be. You can pretend it's a mix if you want, but that's racist and not supported by WOTC. (note that this is intended to portray what we're being told, not that I think it's racist)
Now, if they wanted to streamline the game and officially allow mixed race support, they could have said something allow the lines of, “We want to streamline the game while officially allowing mixed races. Be anything you want, but take the traits of a single race for simplicity and game balance. 30 different racial traits is too many. We want no more than 10 options total.” That’s a reasonable, non-racist stance. For instance, If you have 5 “pure” races and want to blend them, that balloons out to 15 half-races.
I still think that will hit a nerve with some of the mixed race players that see this solution as mirroring one of the irl struggles they have to deal with of being forced to choose/identify with one parentage or the other.
What they need to do is acknowledge that it needs to be addressed, then work on a clearly defined system for choosing traits from each parent. Setting up Minor Traits and Major Traits, and choosing a certain number of each from whatever side they want. I think people would be just fine with it being vague/undefined for now as long as we knew it was at least something they plan to develop.
Buddy, if you want your human PC to be of mixed ethnicity, that was always allowed. Stretching that idea across fifty species and codifying every one is indeed stupid.
So only Human is representative of humans ...
... when mixed-race players are offended by the erasure of the half-elf ...
... but Orc and Drow are analogous with a real-world ethnic minority when others are offended.
I'm sure that makes sense in your head but it is a dismissive and offensive take on this matter.
I do think that mixed race characters should be a thing, but that said, it always bothered me back in the 1e days that, culturally, half elves were considered separate from both Humans and Elves and shunned. Yes, historically that kind of prejudice has existed and still exists, but the implication that for every such character, it must exist? That just has always felt wrong to me.
That wasn't in the 1e or 2e books. They were literally NOTseparate from elves or humans - they didn't have lands of their own, but lived among both elvish and human communities. It does state that they were regarded with a wide range of reactions - from intrigued fascination to outright bigotry - but never mentions that they were outcasts. The closest to that was that they were viewed with suspicion and superstition in "less civilized" nations. One of their strengths was that they had common contact with various races (thus allowing a wider language choice).
I do think that mixed race characters should be a thing, but that said, it always bothered me back in the 1e days that, culturally, half elves were considered separate from both Humans and Elves and shunned. Yes, historically that kind of prejudice has existed and still exists, but the implication that for every such character, it must exist? That just has always felt wrong to me.
That's LITERALLY most of the fun.
NOT for me, it's not. I am sick of being told that I'm not Mexican enough, or not Irish enough, or not Spanish enough, or not WHATEVER enough.
I don't know who you are or what your experience is, and I'm not going to presume to make those judgements. But I've dealt with being told I don't belong anywhere enough times in my life. I' don't need any more of it.
I do think that mixed race characters should be a thing, but that said, it always bothered me back in the 1e days that, culturally, half elves were considered separate from both Humans and Elves and shunned. Yes, historically that kind of prejudice has existed and still exists, but the implication that for every such character, it must exist? That just has always felt wrong to me.
That's LITERALLY most of the fun.
NOT for me, it's not. I am sick of being told that I'm not Mexican enough, or not Irish enough, or not Spanish enough, or not WHATEVER enough.
I don't know who you are or what your experience is, and I'm not going to presume to make those judgements. But I've dealt with being told I don't belong anywhere enough times in my life. I' don't need any more of it.
You're talking to a gay man of color, so your comment may not be the slam dunk you thought it was when you posted it.
I'm going to restate this so hopefully it sinks in. If you're having trouble with bad real-world experiences bleeding into your gaming, then maybe your time would be better spent engaging in some very real self-care.
Gaming is a luxury hobby. If your entertainment activities are triggering, you have something going on FAR deeper that really does require your attention if you want to be happy.
We all have stuff. But we have to handle it. My buck stops with me, and your buck stops with you. Hard lessons, but no way around them.
Yeah, and I'm a gay Mexican. You can speak for yourself, but do not presume that you speak for me. You don't know me.
Yeah, and I'm a gay Mexican. You can speak for yourself, but do not presume that you speak for me. You don't know me.
I don't care to.
Just stop telling everyone else that they're not allowed to have some kind of fun because YOU don't enjoy it.
Excellent. That's wonderful to hear.
At no point did I tell you or anyone else you're not allowed to have some kind of fun. In fact, if that's what you find fun, then fantastic, go and have that to your heart's content. But that's all it is. Your fun.
I've got to say I'm not a fan of how the hybrid species option has been mechanically handled in the playtest. Though if every species can mix with every species, I'm not sure if there is a way to handle it. Maybe a 'trait A' and a 'trait b' which each species has, where hybrids pick the trait A from one parent and the trait B from another? Though that is a powergamers dream.
What I really hate is just saying 'you're mechanically this species completely'. It's boring, makes no sense, and basically erases one of the parents. (it also resembles the 'one drop' concept way too much for my liking).
I've got to say I'm not a fan of how the hybrid species option has been mechanically handled in the playtest. Though if every species can mix with every species, I'm not sure if there is a way to handle it. Maybe a 'trait A' and a 'trait b' which each species has, where hybrids pick the trait A from one parent and the trait B from another? Though that is a powergamers dream.
The key is properly sorting into tiers. "Skill Versatility" same tier as "Keen Senses", but Bonus Feat or Trance would be another tier. That way you're not stacking massive power but still having a huge diversity.
I've got to say I'm not a fan of how the hybrid species option has been mechanically handled in the playtest. Though if every species can mix with every species, I'm not sure if there is a way to handle it. Maybe a 'trait A' and a 'trait b' which each species has, where hybrids pick the trait A from one parent and the trait B from another? Though that is a powergamers dream.
The key is properly sorting into tiers. "Skill Versatility" same tier as "Keen Senses", but Bonus Feat or Trance would be another tier. That way you're not stacking massive power but still having a huge diversity.
Currently the abilities aren't even separated into column A and B in the playtest. And doing it the way I suggested would automatically mean that every playable species prior to the playtest (like the ones from motm) wouldn't function with this. So yeah ignore my suggestion. Would only work for a fresh edition, while this is 5.5e.
Options for creating characters descended from more than one species are not being removed from Dungeons & Dragons. Proposed adjustments to character origins have been open to the community since August 2022 and will be revised further: http://spr.ly/6019OyEdH
If anyone wishes to engage in this discussion, it would behove them to apply some critical analysis of where you're getting your information from and what agenda that source may have, lest you be misled.
Having Half-elves as official races alongside the other twenty elves is stupid. Having just two official "half" races when there are over fifty races is stupid. Making an official race for every combination of races would be stupid. Removing the codified "half" races is a great move.
Except, they aren't removing them for the reasons you specify. The reason they give is backwards and reductive to the point it is more problematic than the problem they are allegedly trying to solve.
NOT for me, it's not. I am sick of being told that I'm not Mexican enough, or not Irish enough, or not Spanish enough, or not WHATEVER enough.
I don't know who you are or what your experience is, and I'm not going to presume to make those judgements. But I've dealt with being told I don't belong anywhere enough times in my life. I' don't need any more of it.
I'm sincerely sorry to hear that's been your experience. I mean that.
Many of us though don't want to deny half of who we are. We don't want to be seen as one or the other. But as both. Or neither.
This really comes down to the individual.
It is deeply insensitive for people to want to force one way of thinking about something as complex as this onto others. Wizards are making arses of themselves
I am a Canadian living in Germany. I come from a city where there are communities with origins in various nations around the world. All of them, human. Like me, like you. I have studied the history of the Metis and other so called 'half breed' portions of humanity.
I have seen plenty of racial and cultural tension.
The whole 'child of two worlds' trope is based on exactly such reality. The trope itself is a stand in for a real world concept.
And again, there is nothing stopping you or anyone else from playing such a character? Why, exactly, does the character have to be a half-elf for that, rather than a child of of parents of two different nations? Or two different religions? Or simply has the 'wrong' hair colour for their geographical location? Or the 'wrong' facial structure? Or or or....
Or even an elf, or a human that looks too human or too elvish respectively. When one actually understands the roots of the trope, it is not hard at all to play such a character without needing any defined sub-race.
There are a lot of bicultural players and players who are parents of bicultural children who are pissed off at Wizards right now.
Half-elves have resonated with many of us for years.
Stop dismissing people for taking offense to this.
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I want to start off by saying that those feelings are a valid reaction to the playtest and I see what you mean, but I would also ask if you had considered that there are other mechanically significant parts of a character's origin here than their inherited powers. The Background, Language, and the Feat are also mechanically significant and I think they can help represent more parts of a character's heritage. The part of the playtest that makes me feel more comfortable and others that I have talked to as well is that they now treat multiracial heritage as part of someone's lore rather than some kind of special superpower that sets them apart from everyone else. I mean why only those two, Half Elves and Half Orcs?
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Buddy, if you want your human PC to be of mixed ethnicity, that was always allowed. Stretching that idea across fifty species and codifying every one is indeed stupid.
i don't understand the kerfuffle about losing half elves. in the UA playtest, unless something has changed, you can still be a half elf or half orc. the major difference is that the other half isn't locked into half-human. soon elvish and orcish children will be free to have dwarf dads, gnomish moms, etc. your character can even be a half-elf-half-orc. what's the loss?
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
"How fantasy biracial characters work in One DnD is fairly straightforward. You can “mix and match visual characteristics” as you like, then choose which race option provides your game traits: size, speed, and special traits (like dwarf’s stonesense and dragonborn’s breath weapons)."
This is not a true bispecies character however as mechanically it only values 1 parent not both. Yes cosmetically you can be a mix but mechanically unless they change the system you can not so it's not a true mixed race system. When you have a system that lets you pick a trait from each parentage then it will be a true bispecies system; I am not a fan of their current attempt and hope they will improve it but I'm sadly not holding my breath.
"As written you have to pick one race, but you can pretend it looks different. It does not allow you to mix & match racial traits. The point of half-elves was to have some of the versatility of humans with some of the benefits of elves - not having all of either one."
⬆️ This.
"The naming strategy is being removed in favour of something more palatable. But the races are not being removed. You can still play them."
So what would you call a mixed species PC then Cyb3rM1nd? If someone uses the 2014 PHB and says "my character is a half-elf" you still have the term being used so what does removing it from the new book grant you? It just feels like they're creating more issues than they're solving with some moves.
They aren't an elf or an orc, but half of each if that's the parent mix you went with for the game.
"And "halfling" isn't part of that because the "half" used in that is a reference to them being "half the size" not "half a race"."
The debate is though if they take issue with the term "half" that is literally half of the Halfling name so do you rename them as well, if not why are you just renaming some with it in the title? I get what you're saying regarding it's half the size but again a half elf is literally half an elf in DNA so what else should they be called? I get not wanting people to use it in a derogatory way, but have many people been doing that to warrant this change? If not then why rock this boat; why alienate biracial players and players who just enjoy doing biracial PCs for story reasons by saying identifying as half X or half Y is racist? Again if they had such an issue with the term why change it now? It was important to them to update Strahd because they didn't like how NPCs on it were portrayed and language and they thought removing also from species was important enough to write Tasha's so why wait until a new PHB to address this? It feels weird.
"Half-elves, half-orcs, half-whatevers, are supposed to be outcasts, not accepted by either race."
Why though? Surely there's some loving biracial families in the lands! Ugh, I hate old lore like this and that for sure can go - let villains be villains because of actions not because a god deemed them so and if you're going to say someone usually does something say there always exception to the rules; some new DMs and players especially think if it's in the books it's cannon only and forever and that's why you get Exact Same Character 247 instead of new ideas and why people turn from the hobby because they come with a cool new take on something but are shut down because RAW.
How about focusing on that D&D team instead of creating issues where there mainly are none at the time? Revising the Drow and Orcs alone should take you the next 5 years. If you want to better adventures there's at least 2 more years; maybe it's just me but I think there's better places they could have started revamping problematic issues than removing half-elf/half-orc and making a subpar "mixed species PC creator" to replace them because it in fact does not allow you to reflex both your racial sides.
"If anything, to embrace equality and promote inclusion, there should be more "half-" races, not less."
⬆️
"Still unsure if an April Fools joke or not."
Was the article posted on April 1st? If not, it's probably not a joke. From what I can tell this conversation has been going on online all over various platforms for at least half a day so Wizards has to know about it and regardless if it's true or not originally they now have to say something about it and either clarify the comment, stand by it, or say it's not true and then sue the website for slander.
Of all the things to April Fools on why pick this as a topic? If you want more rage it would be an article saying a new OGL will be in play for One/6e (not calling it Revised given it contains all new class formats and species not in the original 5e PHB) or something about the VTT and all the microtransactions it's certainly going to have...it could be fake but the more Wizards doesn't speak up the more it seems realistic.
Sadly, even if they do speak up and say it's fake now how many will believe them given all the recent issues they've had with communication missteps?
They just can't seem to get out of their own way as it were this year.
"I mean why only those two, Half Elves and Half Orcs?"
This is a fair question for sure Ophidimancer!
This is why I'm fine on the one hand with a Mixed Species Creator and a line being included in the Species section saying when two species mix together and produce a mixed species child that child gains traits from each parent - this includes mechanical and visual features...see page X for the MSC or something and then players could see from the engine how to pull from any two species.
That said, the creation system the D&D team have pitched in the UA is bad for reflecting this. Yes visually they say you can go wild with how you customize your PC to reflect each parent but mechanically they are currently forcing you to chose a parentage and that's not how DNA works. Even if they say it's meant to reflect the dominate/recessive genes of DNA you still get some from parent A and some from parent B so yeah your Breath Weapon might be your dominate power (especially if you use it in combat all the time) and maybe you said you have scales like your Dragonborne parent but you still have in you Darkvision from your Elf parent...it might only go 30ft versus 60ft because only one parent has it but it's still in you and something that could be the dominate gene in your kid.
If they revise their mixed species creator then you could have a Mixed Species species option after the base species stats are shown and that would again open every species up to having the option not just elves and orcs.
The reason given for removing the “half-races” is because the concept of “half” races is itself racist. WOTC’s likely intention is to open up mixed races and simplify the game even further. But like many people, they fail to see their racism as racism
What's the loss? You no longer have a character with a pre-balanced blend of racial traits. Half-elf has been a race from the first edition of AD&D, combining some of the versatility of humans with some of the "magic" of elves. While the specifics have changed through the various editions, even in 5e they get some of each but not all of both - a balance.
What we're getting? Choose one race, and only one race. All of your racial traits come from that one race. There is no system to choose traits from two parent races, nor will there be. You can pretend it's a mix if you want, but that's racist and not supported by WOTC. (note that this is intended to portray what we're being told, not that I think it's racist)
I still think that will hit a nerve with some of the mixed race players that see this solution as mirroring one of the irl struggles they have to deal with of being forced to choose/identify with one parentage or the other.
What they need to do is acknowledge that it needs to be addressed, then work on a clearly defined system for choosing traits from each parent. Setting up Minor Traits and Major Traits, and choosing a certain number of each from whatever side they want. I think people would be just fine with it being vague/undefined for now as long as we knew it was at least something they plan to develop.
So only Human is representative of humans ...
... when mixed-race players are offended by the erasure of the half-elf ...
... but Orc and Drow are analogous with a real-world ethnic minority when others are offended.
I'm sure that makes sense in your head but it is a dismissive and offensive take on this matter.
That wasn't in the 1e or 2e books. They were literally NOT separate from elves or humans - they didn't have lands of their own, but lived among both elvish and human communities. It does state that they were regarded with a wide range of reactions - from intrigued fascination to outright bigotry - but never mentions that they were outcasts. The closest to that was that they were viewed with suspicion and superstition in "less civilized" nations. One of their strengths was that they had common contact with various races (thus allowing a wider language choice).
NOT for me, it's not. I am sick of being told that I'm not Mexican enough, or not Irish enough, or not Spanish enough, or not WHATEVER enough.
I don't know who you are or what your experience is, and I'm not going to presume to make those judgements. But I've dealt with being told I don't belong anywhere enough times in my life. I' don't need any more of it.
Yeah, and I'm a gay Mexican. You can speak for yourself, but do not presume that you speak for me. You don't know me.
Excellent. That's wonderful to hear.
At no point did I tell you or anyone else you're not allowed to have some kind of fun. In fact, if that's what you find fun, then fantastic, go and have that to your heart's content. But that's all it is. Your fun.
I've got to say I'm not a fan of how the hybrid species option has been mechanically handled in the playtest. Though if every species can mix with every species, I'm not sure if there is a way to handle it. Maybe a 'trait A' and a 'trait b' which each species has, where hybrids pick the trait A from one parent and the trait B from another? Though that is a powergamers dream.
What I really hate is just saying 'you're mechanically this species completely'. It's boring, makes no sense, and basically erases one of the parents. (it also resembles the 'one drop' concept way too much for my liking).
The key is properly sorting into tiers. "Skill Versatility" same tier as "Keen Senses", but Bonus Feat or Trance would be another tier. That way you're not stacking massive power but still having a huge diversity.
Currently the abilities aren't even separated into column A and B in the playtest. And doing it the way I suggested would automatically mean that every playable species prior to the playtest (like the ones from motm) wouldn't function with this. So yeah ignore my suggestion. Would only work for a fresh edition, while this is 5.5e.
The two threads have been merged to avoid redundancy.
Also, to fight the rampant misinformation that is being propagated, here is the official statement on the matter
If anyone wishes to engage in this discussion, it would behove them to apply some critical analysis of where you're getting your information from and what agenda that source may have, lest you be misled.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I wish I heard more about what was being added to D&D, rather than removed.
Except, they aren't removing them for the reasons you specify. The reason they give is backwards and reductive to the point it is more problematic than the problem they are allegedly trying to solve.
I'm sincerely sorry to hear that's been your experience. I mean that.
Many of us though don't want to deny half of who we are. We don't want to be seen as one or the other. But as both. Or neither.
This really comes down to the individual.
It is deeply insensitive for people to want to force one way of thinking about something as complex as this onto others. Wizards are making arses of themselves
There are a lot of bicultural players and players who are parents of bicultural children who are pissed off at Wizards right now.
Half-elves have resonated with many of us for years.
Stop dismissing people for taking offense to this.